The importance of historical scientific communities of the late XIX - early XX centuries in matters of protection of cultural heritage sites

The article reviews the main historical scientific communities that functioned in the Russian Empire in the post-reform period - the Moscow Archaeological Society, the Russian Archaeological Society, the Russian Geographical Society, and a number of church scientific and historical organizations. Their characteristics are given, brief historical circumstances of the emergence of such organizations are summarized, their activities, which directly influenced the processes of protection of cultural heritage objects, are considered. At the same time, some special methodological issues of cultural heritage protection are considered in detail, such as the “Notes for the Review of Russian Antiquities”, compiled by the famous ethnographer, folklorist, paleographer I.P. Sakharov, dedicated to Orthodox religious monuments. The main issues of monument protection of the first archaeological congress in 1869 are considered, such as: on the most accurate definition of the method and techniques in the study of monuments; on measures to preserve and make known monuments of pagan and Christian antiquity in Russia; drawing up detailed instructions for archaeological research; terminology of Russian archaeology; on the compilation of archaeology.